Creatine, yes, the favorite of gym rats everywhere, a supplement that many of us have tasks ourselves, is a natural compound that is already within each person. Scientists have been studying creatine since the 1830s and, for more than a century, we know it was essential to produce energy in our muscles.
That, like anyone who was alive in the 90s, can remember, how creatine first exploded as a consumption product. Swedish researchers published Influential research in 1992 that demonstrates the effectiveness of creatine supplements in improving resistance and recovery during brief explosions of physical exercise. He did not take long after creatine supplements reached the shelves of pharmacies and training gyms throughout the country. And it was popular. Not only was it cheap, a 10 to 10 -year creatine bottle costs $ 17 in Amazon – But it was also an easy way for bodybuilders and exercise enthusiasts to improve their performance. Today, like many ashes One in four adults Let’s say they have used creatine; $ 400 million per value It is sold in the United States every year.
And this was a supplement that really worked: a meta -analysis of the 2018 aviation investigation concluded that Creatine is “the most effective nutritional supplement Available for athletes to increase the high intensity exercise capacity and training of muscle mass. “In the years of studies, no dangerous side effects have been detected.
But the most surprising use of creatine supplements is in an environment that could not be further from the image of accumulated bodybuilders who pump iron: treat depression.
In the early 2000s, scientists established the importance of creatine not only for muscle use but also for brain function. The compound Aid His brain to convert nutrients into energy and scientists concluded that poor metabolism could help explain several psychiatric disorders, including depression. In lay terms, if your brain were an efficient processing energy, negative side effects could have thesis.
If that were true, it would be dedicated to that more creatine could Ipon’s brain metabolism and, therefore, relieve its depression.
A decade ago, the first clinical trials initiate evidence if creatine supplements improved depression among people who also receive antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy. The results have an impressive leg: a 2024 meta-recession concluded that Creatine had demonstrated its effectiveness By complementing these other treatments, leading people to feel better faster and it is less likely to experience depression again.
Now comes a new study, outside India, creatine suggestion could be useful for treating depression without antidepressants getting involved, a preliminary but potentially important finding while we are looking for cheaper and easier forms of more to whom people. People.
A new fascinating creatine depression study in India
The study, published Earlier this year, he was small and flew under the radar: 100 participants, in Dehradun, an 800,000 city at the northern end of India. Principal researcher Nima Norbu Sherpa or the Caleledonia University of Glasgow received a subsidy from a charity -based beneficial organization in India, the Universal Association of Human Rights and Social Development, to direct the experiment.
The environment is the count: part of Creatine’s attractiveness in the mental health treatment is not only its potential efficacy, but it is also cheap and does not require a professional doctor; Patients can take it on their own. That made Dehradun, a development city with many low -income patients and relatively few mental health doctors, a logical place to assess whether creatine could improve people who are done well with antidepressants, Riccardry said the Giorgord co -author of the document.
The 100 participants, recruited from the city and small surrounding villages, were divided into two groups. Both groups took the game in conversation therapy sessions. One group also received 5 grams of creatine every day, while the other got a placebo.
After eight weeks, both groups were improving behavioral-cognitive therapy is a well-certified treatment for depression. But patients who took creatine in addition to their therapy were better.
The participants answered a nine -question survey at the beginning of the study, which tested a score of a number of the severity of their symptoms of depression. People in both groups began a little lower than 18 on average, indicating moderately severe depression. At the end of the study, patients revolve creatine reported a score of 5 in acneage, while the control group was recorded at 11. Eleven people who were there, creatine throughout the study reported in remission, which means that they could be an effective life; Only five people who took placebos said the same.
Both groups had around 20 people suspending their treatment, it is not uncommon for people with depression, the authors said. The side effects reported for the people who took creatine were mild.
It is a striking result, just as the Giorgi repeatedly emphasized that the findings were “incremental and preliminary.” The inevitably sensational nature of the finding: can a bodybuilder supplement help with depression? – It guarantees to be clear and cautious in how we interpret the findings.
“The previous sensational messages in this research area, for example, creatine, physical exercise, keto diet, have caused more damage to science than the benefit,” Giorgi told me about email.
On the one hand, the high abandonment rate is the reason for skepticism on the precise size of the creatine effect. More research is needed that replicates the same results before we can be sure that creatine therapy is more a winning combination.
But it is an area or research. Peter Attia, a doctor who writes on longevity and health improvement and did not participate in the study, written By covering the study findings that “since many people already use creatine as part of their supplement routine, it could be an easy addition to those who seek to improve changes in the lifestyle of mental health.” Their affordability and ubiquity could also make it attractive to people with less resources, such as those who participated in the study of India.
However, he also warned that more evidence would be needed before we can determine if creatine fits “the therapeutic toolbox.”
While we deal with A global mental health crisisWe need all the tools we can find. More than two thirds of the world population I can’t get access To conventional mental health treatments. If we really have an alternative as cheap and available as creatine, it could make a real difference.
